


Never Gonna Leave Me

by bannanachan



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Celibacy, F/F, Gen, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bannanachan/pseuds/bannanachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the good of the universe, Terezi Pyrope decides not to kiss anyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Gonna Leave Me

Vriska Serket tries to kiss you on the mouth a month after your journey begins. This is in keeping with your relationship with her so far, considering that you tried to kill her about a month ago. Less in keeping is that you don’t let her.

You lean back. In the same instant, she retracts her face from yours. Flushing blue, she stammers. “Wh-what’s up, Pyrope? Can’t smell where your lips are going?”

You frown. On the one hand, you’re pretty happy that Vriska’s alive, because in retrospect, killing her would have been a pretty poor plan. And you’re not offended! Because a month ago, you would have kissed her back. On the other hand, you’ve just about had it up to here with this shit.

“I’m not going to kiss you, Vriska.” You say. “Sorry.”

You can see her processing as she talks, backpedaling, trying not to embarrass herself more than she already has. “Why would you be sorry? Come on, Terezi, I was – I was only joking anyway, obviously I wouldn’t even be interested in that –”

“I’m not going to kiss anyone.” You say, and in the moment you say it, you have never been more sure of anything.

“… What?”

***

“Terezi, what is this bugwinged nonsense I hear about you _not kissing anyone?_ ”

You look up from your tablet. Karkat is on the other side of the table, both of his hands slammed down in a flawless portrait of righteous teenage fury.

You had been expecting this would happen.

“You don’t need to be so dramatic.” You respond, keeping your tone neutral. “It’s not a crisis, is it?”

“You’re goddamned right it’s a crisis, you nookwhiffing heliotoad! What do you expect to do about the drones?!”

You snort. “Sorry, but I’m not that concerned about the effects of failing to provide my genetic material to a pile of rubble.”

He flushes red, and it’s actually kind of sweet for a second, that kind of knee-jerk concern. It’s a sweetness that ends the second he starts talking. “But… why? What’s wrong, is there – did I do something? Is it my fault? Is it _Dave’s_ fault? It’s Dave’s fault, isn’t it.”

“How about it’s none of your business, is why?” You snap. “And it’s not Dave’s fault, so don’t even think of bugging him about this. I’m sure you’ll find a way to have the interspecies makeout party without me, you’ve got three sets of genitals between the six of you. Without even counting whatever’s in the dream bubbles.”

“But… Terezi, what about – I mean, about _us?_ Is that it, are we…” He trails off and his eyes meet the floor.

No small part of you wants to go to him then. Give in, touch his cheek, kiss his lips, laugh in his face, call it off. He was your life for so much of your life so far. He was kind, and adorable, and furious, and amazing, and the 12 of you would have never made it without him.

But you don’t need him.

“I’m sorry, Karkat.” You say. “My decision is final.”

You pick up your tablet, stand up, and walk out on him. He doesn’t look up from the ground the whole time.

***

“Terezi?”

The sound of her voice makes you jump. Kanaya doesn’t smell like anything since she died, and it’s unnerving as hell. Used to be you could tell when someone entered a room before most of your sighted compatriots, but you guess her superpowers kind of outrank yours now.

“What can I do for you, Kanaya?” You ask, trying to keep your tone even. “Not hungry, I hope?”

She shakes her head. “No. I just, ah…”

You sigh and spin around in your computer chair. “Which one of them told you, then?”

“…. Vriska.”

“Well, if you’re trying to step in and auspiticize, forget it.” You say. “I already told her I’m not interested in anything concupiscent, and anything conciliatory would just encourage her. Same goes for him, and you for that matter, so you might as well just butt out for once.”

“I’m not.” She says hastily. “Trust me, Terezi, I’m just as over that particular flame as you are, if not moreso.”

“Then why did you come here?”

She shrugs. “I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

Abruptly, you remember that Kanaya is actually a nice person. For the first time that day, you smile.

“Thank you, but I’m fine.” You reply.

She smiles back. “Okay. If there’s anything you need to talk about… I’m here, just so you know.”

“There really isn’t.”

“Okay.”

“… Kanaya, if you want to know why, you can just ask.”

“You told Karkat it was none of his business.”

“And it isn’t. But I don’t mind it so much coming from you.”

“I would very much like to know why, yes.”

You sigh again. Putting it into words is not very easy, even though it isn’t really complicated. “You remember what happened with Vriska? And the John human?”

“It would be difficult to forget.”

“I’ve never really explained it to anyone, but… I’m pretty sure that was me.”

She frowns. “What do you mean that was you? I mean, you did try to kill her, but…”

You groan. “No, not that me, I mean… future me. But not future _me_ future me, another one. I think she was from a doomed timeline, and I think… I think she was trying to save us from it.”

Kanaya is skeptical. “How do you know all this?”

“It was back during our session – John kept leaving these notes for me. I don’t know, I still don’t get the time travel thing, I can just – tell.”

“What does that have to do with kissing?”

You set your face as straight as you can. “Kanaya. I understand if you don’t believe me. But I think the fate of our universe hinges on who I do or do not make out with, and I’m not comfortable with that kind of a commitment to _anyone._ ”

***

Kanaya believes you. But you don’t think anyone else would, so you come up with an excuse – you just want to focus on other stuff. It’s not like there’s not other stuff to focus on! Jack Noir is still chasing your party through the void of space, that white dog is still chasing him through the void of space, you’re all hurtling at unknowable speeds into the unknown future and there’s a monster out there trying to kill _everything._ You’re a Seer, you have responsibilities, you need to keep your head on straight. It’s barely even a lie, so it works great.

Or it would. If it weren’t for the fact that all your friends are horny teenagers trapped in an enclosed space with one another.

You didn’t know what to do with Gamzee at first. Well, you had some idea – if tying him up and leaving him locked in a room was an idea, you definitely had an idea. It was an idea that made Karkat uncomfortable, but it was an idea! Only one day Rose went in to feed him and he was gone, and the vent was open.

And for a while, you just didn’t find him at all. Which was unnerving, but okay. He didn’t make any contact with any of you, and that was great.

Until he drops out of the ceiling while you’re midway down a corridor and tries to kiss you on the lips.

You punch him in the nose.

He falls back about a yard. You’re so surprised that you don’t even say anything for a solid thirty seconds. Gamzee gets up, dusts off his pants, draws a club from his specibus, points it at you, and smiles.

“Hey, Terecita.” He says. “Long time no see.”

“Gamzee,” you say, “What the _fuck?_ ”

Gamzee shrugs. “I wanted to see you, yeah? So I came to see you. No problem, right sister?”

You sigh, as long and as loud and obnoxious as you can. “Put the damn club down, Gamzee.”

“Make me.”

You snort. “What, with my tongue? Or my cane? Think I’ll pass.”

In the next second, his face is inches from yours. His body takes up the hallway when he wants it to; Gamzee is huge and you are not, he could snap your neck in two with his hand. He places each hulking arm up against the bulkhead on either side of you and smirks. “FUNNY, girl. You were so eager to pull it out just a month ago.”

You duck and roll under one arm to the other side of the hall. You draw your cane out of your specibus, leaving the scabbard behind. “Would you like to be tied up again? Because that can be arranged.”

You realize the error in your comeback about a millisecond after you make it, as Gamzee’s buoyant laughter fills up the corridor. “That depends, Terecita – what do I get for the favor?”

You can tell he’s goading you. Frustratingly, knowing this does not prevent it working. You furrow your brow and give Gamzee a once over. What is he up to? Does he know? Did he overhear one of your conversations from a vent, and now he’s trying to test your limits, to poke your weak points? Jegus forbid, he overheard your conversation with Kanaya and he’s trying to get to the truth of the matter and twist it to his purposes. Maybe it’s a trap.

Or maybe he just wants to fuck you.

Yeah, it’s probably that one.

There’s a warp pad on the end of the hallway opposite from you. You make a run for it. As you had expected, Gamzee is just slow enough not to notice and come after you until you are already about an inch away from your goal. You stop there and turn, your smile spreading from ear to ear.

“Horseshit!” You tell him, and disintegrate straight into the library.

***

“Hey Terezi.”

You know Karkat’s smell better than you know most. It’s been about a perigee since you quit the whole kissing thing, and you’ve avoided each other ever since. You’re not sure if you really want that arrangement to end. But it has to some time, anyway.

“What can I do for you, Karkat?” You ask, not turning around. You’ve decided to stop “looking” at people when you talk to them to make them more comfortable. You’ve decided to stop doing a lot of things that make people more comfortable.

He clears his throat awkwardly and loudly. “I wanted to tell you that I decided I’m cool with it. Your whole… not kissing thing.”

“That’s very considerate of you.” You say. You hope this will end it. It doesn’t.

“I think you’ve blown out your thinkpan.” He says. “But it’s cool, you know? You should do your thing. Obviously it’s pretty important to you, it’d have to be for you to give up a stud like Dave as a partner. Or Vriska, man. That’s gotta be a tough catch to release. But hey, maybe if you stop trying to shove your tongues down each other’s ignorance tunnels you’ll stop trying to shove your knives into each other’s vital organs! Gotta say, not having any more friends’ corpses crowding up this meteor would be bananas, so you staying away from her might be the best option for the rest of us at least.”

You lose your patience with this whole enterprise somewhere around his third sentence. You decide it’s past time you cut this off, so you swing your chair around, deliberately crossing your arms in front of your chest. “Is there something I can do for you? Besides listen to your blithering all day?”

He turns pink. You can smell it from halfway across the room when that happens, his candy blood rushing right to the surface of his skin. You know what it smells like. You don’t think you will forget what Karkat’s blood smells like until you die. The way things are going, you may not even forget then. Memories rush to the surface of your own skin, and you know in an instant that you’ve turned teal. There was the Land of Thought and Flow, and Karkat’s skin, and yours right next to it.

Karkat’s been silent for fifteen seconds, which isn’t like him. It isn’t like you not to make fun of him for it. But you’re pretty sure you’d just humiliate yourself if you tried, so you don’t.

“Nothing.” He says abruptly. “That was, uh… that was pretty much it, was listen to me yell. I’m supportive, is what I’m trying to say here. And I know more about romance than any of our shitwaffle excuses for friends, so if you ever wanna talk about it, just remember I’m your man. And if you ever change your mind... you know where to find me.”

“You know I’m not gonna take you up on that, right?”

“Don’t kick me when I’m down.”

You cackle. It’s nice talking to Karkat again, even if he is being a dick. “See you later, Karkat.”

“Yeah.”

He mopes his way out of your respiteblock and you close the door behind him. You jack off for ten minutes that night to the thought of Karkat going down on you. You do it every night for the next week.

***

A year passes without event. You didn’t even know what a year was a little while ago, but Rose and Dave said it’s basically just half a sweep. It’s also a third of the time that you’re going to be stuck on this rock. In your opinion, the years cannot pass quickly enough.

You meet your ancestors, including Kankri. He is thrilled to find a partner in the cause of celibacy, and attempts to convince Rose to follow your example and pursue her higher calling as a Seer. (She declines. You hear Porrim sigh.) It’s such a joke, you forget not to laugh. Luckily you laugh so much anyway that no one questions it. You wonder if Latula knows. You figure she must, after how many centuries they’ve spent together. But it’s hard to be sure of anything with these trolls.

You wander away when you don’t want to deal with it any more, which is quickly. The bubbles are a weird landscape to walk through, all barren desert to lush forests to open waters at a moment’s notice. And the people, and the trolls. You never know what to expect here. You’re surprised that you ever run into people you know.

You’re surprised when you find Dave. He’s standing on a bridge, staring at the ground, mumbling words to himself under his breath. The difference between being a rapper and insanity is so razor thin that at times you suspect it does not exist.

“… Stop me from ballin’, lawlin, drawlin. I'm shotcallin, you crawlin and sprawlin while I'm stridin tall’n stallin' like Stalin… Berlin wallin', that's whatchoo get when you call-in, fall in… brawlin… Oh. Hey Terezi.”

He’s so goddamn cute.

“Hey, Dave.” You say. “How’s the rap?”

“S’okay.” He shrugs. “Trying to come up with some new material lately. Feel like the creative juices aren’t flowing well any more. I think I’m just out of source material? Like, earth pop culture doesn’t exist any more, so that’s a thing. Maybe I should switch to some Alternian stuff. Or Beforan shit.” He laughs. “Talk about dated, man. You meet that anime kid?”

“Rufioh?”

“Yeah, I think that was it. With the big horns ? And the village of lost weeaboos? Man, I laughed so hard I almost died. Maybe I fuckin’ did for all I can tell. Guess that wouldn’t be too heroic though.”

“I guess not.”

You fall into a silence. It’s not entirely an awkward one, but it’s not comfortable either. You haven’t talked much to Dave lately. If ‘lately’ is since your journey started. Okay, so you haven’t talked much to Dave in a year. Maybe you were avoiding it a little bit. Maybe (probably) he was too. It’s not like you didn’t talk at all – you talked at the dinner table, on those occasions where you all ate together. You said hi when you passed by him and the mayor. But you didn’t really hang out.

“How’ve you –”

“So what’s been up with –”

You both stop mid-sentence. He smirks. “With you.”

You smile. “Not much. It’s… actually been great. Not having anything up.”

He nods. “Sounds sweet. I’m jealous.”

“Why?” You smirk. “What’s been up with you?”

“Just…” He trails off and shakes his head. “This bullshit Lord English stuff, you know? All these people… that blue chick, Vriska’s ancestor, they keep saying I’m meant to defeat him? I’m just like, slow down dudes, I only knew he existed a month ago and his fist is the size of my head.”

You laugh, even though it’s not really funny. There’s not much you can say to that, so you laugh instead. “Between you and me, Vriska’s ancestor is even more of a dick than Vriska. I wouldn’t put too much faith in the things she says.”

“Didn’t Vriska try to kill you?”

“Not directly.”

He shakes his head. “Whatever floats your boat. Just leave me out of your crazy lesbian hatemakeouts.”

“What’s a lesbian?”

“It’s an urban legend. Also Rose, probably.”

You laugh again, because that is funny, even if you’re not sure why. “I’m not kissing Vriska, Dave.”

“Yeah, I know. Still don’t get why. But it seems like it makes you happy, anyway.” He pauses for a second, directing his gaze away from you. “I’m glad you’re happy, Terezi.”

You pause for a second before finding a reply. “I’m glad you’re alive, Dave.”

“Me too.”

For a minute, the two of you just look out at the view. The ocean ahead of your bridge is surrounded on either side by purple and gold, cherry blossoms, lily pads – it’s a bouquet. And hives. One of them is yours. You wonder what Dave is seeing, what pieces of the puzzle belong to him.

You have met a lot of dead Daves so far this trip, two of which you were directly responsible for. You’ve met impaled Daves, Daves drowned in lava, exploded Daves. You vow, right then and there, that you are going to do everything in your power to stop the one standing next to you from becoming one of them.

“You should stop by can town sometime.” He says abruptly. “Gets kinda lonely sometimes with just me and the mayor and all those peas. If you feel like it.”

“Well, I would hate for the mayor to be lonely.”

He scoffs. But he smiles.

On the meteor a couple days later, you see him half-dancing, half-walking down the corridor, talking as he goes. You flatten yourself up against the bulkhead to listen.

“ _Austin, Texas: I am times nexus_  
_Name's Dave strider and you know I'm bouts to wreck this_  
_Dreck piss - that's what you sound like son_  
_You're 413 while I'm number one_  
_Nah you're number 612 no 1025_  
_Dead me’s pile up but I'm still quite alive_  
_And I'm staying that way til the end of all days_  
_Ask them damn nakkadiles if crime doesn't pay_  
_You try to step to me - you should step the fuck back_  
_Yo my flows so hot like its name was LOHAC_  
_Clockwork, heat, I can't be beat_  
_You're a country lane while I'm fucking street_  
_Cuz my rapping is sublime; yes I bring it yes I bring it_  
_But rapping is like time - yo you can't over think it_  
_So I don't think at all_  
_Even from a close call_  
_Who cares if I fall_  
_Won't stop me from ball-_  
_in_  
_Lawlin_  
_Drawlin_  
_I'm shotcallin_  
_You crawlin and sprawlin_  
_While I'm stridin tallin_  
_Stallin' like Stalin_  
_Berlin wallin'_  
_That's whatchoo get when you're dreambubble brawlin!”_

Sometimes, you really regret not kissing Dave.

***

“ _This was ne-ver the way I planned, not my intentionnnnn…_ ”

You round the corner to the library and stop in your tracks. The first thing you notice is Rose making a noise that you don’t like. The second thing you notice is the smell of alcohol – it’s an overwhelming stench, to your nose, too much to take in anything else. So Rose’s blood is the third thing you notice.

There’s not a lot – it’s just her hand. She’s holding a glass and there’s blood smeared all over the side. Most of it dried, so it can’t be too bad. On the table, there’s another glass – broken, and this one more stained with blood than the other. So that answers that question.

She doesn’t seem to have noticed. Or if she’s noticed, she doesn’t care. She’s just sitting there singing to herself in an odd, loud whisper. “- _kissed a girl, and I liiiiiked it! Taste of her cherrrry chapstick. Iiiii kissed a girl just to tryyyyy it…_ ”

“Rose,” you say, “are you okay?”

“ _And I liked_ – oh, hi Terezi!”

She brightens at your voice, and you bristle. “You’re bleeding.” You say.

“Oh. That.” She laughs. “That’s nothing. Be- _lieve_ me, bleeding out into my alcohol wouldn’t be terribly just or heroic. And it’s mostly stopped.”

“Can I see it?”

She throws up her hands; alcohol splashes out of her glass and over her shoulder. “Be my guest!”

You approach her cautiously and take her injured hand – she giggles as you do. You turn it over. It’s hard to see past the scent of the blood, not to mention the alcohol, but she’s right – it has mostly stopped, and it isn’t a bad wound. But you’re pretty sure human wound care requires a little more than splashing booze on it and letting the blood dry.

“We’re going to your block and cleaning this up.” You say.

Rose’s face falls. “Whaaaat? No. Terezi, look, I’m _fine._ And we were having soooo much fun, there’s no reason to – to ruin all the fun, is there?”

“There are several reasons.” You say firmly. “Now come here.”

Rose stands and wobbles. You take another step towards her, ready to catch her if she falls –

And swift as a whip, she spins you around and knocks you backwards onto an armchair, one arm on either side of you so you’re trapped with her right on top of you.

“You know,” she says, her voice now a whisper, “I _really_ don’t think that all this, this celibacy nonsense – that it can be _good_ for you, you know? I’m quite concerned about it, to tell you the truth. For a species like yours, with such a – with such a need for partnership, a real, biological _need_ – it can’t be healthy. Even in earth terms, you’re – you’re a teenage girl. You can’t just ignore these things.” She leans in close. You can smell the alcohol coming off of her in a cloud. “Perhaps you could come talk about it with me sometime. Just the _two_ of us – seer to seer.”

She winks at you. You do not wink back.

“Rose, does Kanaya know you’re here?”

She smiles, chuckles quietly. “Who cares? She’s not –” And then she laughs full-out, and it’s the most joyless, terrible sound you’ve ever heard. “She’s not my _mother._ ”

And your heart breaks for Rose Lalonde then. For Rose, for her mother, for Kanaya. It’s sad – it really, really is.

But you don’t have the time for it.

“Sorry, Rose.” You say, and you duck down under her, angling your head to the side, and hoist her over your shoulder. She yelps like a dog. For a moment, it is touch-and-go whether the only thing you will achieve with this action is to have drunk Rose on top of you on the floor instead of in an armchair. But you manage to swing her around into a fireman carry with only minor bruising to either party.

“This,” she says, “is _no way_ to treat a lady.”

“Just be glad that it was me instead of Vriska.” You say. “And don’t let me catch you behaving like this again.”

The next morning, you see Kanaya hovering over Rose in the library while she tries to shield her wound from sight with the aid of a coffee cup. Her cheeks turn pink when she sees you. You are courteous enough to pretend that you didn’t. And while you might hear about it once or twice, you don’t catch Rose Lalonde behaving like that again.

***

Vriska slinks out of sight the moment you turn the corner.

She does that sometimes. Ever since she tried to kiss you. Not all the time – plenty of the time she just greets you and you hang out and it’s chill. But it happens enough to be a pattern. Apparently she never really got the notion that hiding out of sight doesn’t work on you, when she smells like she does. You’d know Vriska’s smell anywhere.

Today, you decide you want to know why.

“Hi, Vris.” You say conversationally, and she jumps like a cat.

“Terezi!” She says. “Iiiiiiieee didn’t notice you were there.”

“Oh.” You say. “That’s funny. I don’t usually hide from people I didn’t notice.”

She flinches. You laugh. It always feels right, being with Vriska like this, talking to her, teasing her. You always loved it, even when you simultaneously hated it. And you’re a little mad, actually, that she’s been taking that away from you by running. You don’t know how you did it, but you know that you moved mountains to see this girl again. And you’re not giving up on a single moment with her.

“Vriska, did you need to discuss something with me?”

She sighs. “Oh please, Pyrope. If I wanted to talk about my feelings I’d be chewing on Kanaya’s ear, not indulging in a pile with the girl who gave up on quadrants.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. I’m not doing this.”

At that point, you’re tempted to run away. It’s clear that you’re losing this argument, and it doesn’t surprise you; you always do. There is no winning with Vriska. But for once, you’re not here to win.

“Fine.” You say. “Don’t talk about your feelings. Just let me talk about mine.”

She stops short, and you continue before she has a chance to recover. “I am tired of you avoiding me. I didn’t – I didn’t do this so you could avoid me. And I don’t even know what I did. But when I imagine all this without you… when I imagine me without you. I don’t like what I see. So I don’t know what I did to deserve this kind of treatment, but if you’d care to get the fuck over it and just call us even – for once, for just one fucking moment – then I’d like that.”

For a few moments, your words hang in the stale air. And you don’t know, for a few moments, if you will ever get a reply. Or if she will just leave, like she always does, like you always do. If that will just be your relationship, forever.

Until it isn’t.

“You brought me back.”

You frown. “What?”

“That’s what you did to deserve it, Terezi. You brought me back. And I don’t…. I’m happy, don’t get me wrong that I’m happy. I mean I’ve met the other me, and man, talk about a huge bitch. But now, with you, with this… I owe my life to you, how do I come back from that? How can you and I ever be even?”

Your heart breaks. You do your best to look straight at her when you speak. “Just say it. I’ll do it now, if you’d like. I want to be your friend again, I want to be with you like before. I don’t want us not to be even. We’re even. So could you just… get over yourself and come hug me before I do something drastic?”

Still, Vriska hesitates. So you throw yourself at her.

She’s not prepared, and as soon as your weight hits her, she loses balance and goes toppling to the floor with you entangled on top. The wind gets knocked out of her and you feel her chest heave as she’s coughing underneath you. For some reason, you’re crying. For some reason, so is she.

“I want to be with you, too.” She says. “God. I really, really do, can’t you see that? Why the fuck would I behave this way if I didn’t want you, Terezi. But you don’t. I know you don’t, I know you’re not dating anyone now. And I want so badly to respect that, because I’ve always respected you, I swear. But I can’t stand it, I can’t stand being with you without being with you, so don’t tell me that, don’t do that to me. I can’t handle it.”

It’s not like you didn’t know, but you’re still surprised somehow. You pause for a second before responding in a quiet voice, collecting your thoughts. “What quadrant?”

She sighs and turns her head back to look at you. “I don’t even fucking know any more.”

Slowly, you clamber off of Vriska, limbs awkward in the air as you try not to bruise anything not already bruised. She shuffles back herself and gathers her legs up to her chest. “I just love you.” She tells her knees. “Why does that have to be so hard?”

“… It doesn’t.”

She looks up. Awkwardly, you smile at her, eyebrows raising up above your glasses. “I mean… I didn’t swear off _dating._ Just the kissing part. And I’d be lying if I told you I’d never thought about it, never thought about you. I’ve thought about you a lot, actually. And I’d be open to… options, if you would be.”

Slowly, Vriska’s eyes peek out from above her legs and turn towards you. “… What options?”

You shrug, and you know you’re turning teal just as you can smell her bubbling up with blueberries. “Well. If Kanaya wouldn’t be too offended. You seem like you could use a moirail.”

This time, she lunges at you.

You stay piled there talking with her for the rest of the night and then some, passing through dream bubbles without notice or care. For the first time in years, you are certain that you’ve done something right.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my attempt at writing fluff. My beta readers said it mostly worked, so that's pretty great, since I didn't actually know if I could do that? I guess I still can't since there's some sadstuck in there too (sorry Rose), but it was hella fun to write anyway. It was also intended as gen fic but with recent updates I couldn't help but make the pale Scourgecest thing a thing.
> 
> Thanks to betas and friends [blooper-boy](blooper-boy.tumblr.com), [otomatonom](otomatonom.tumblr.com), and [pantslesswrock](pantslesswrock.tumblr.com) for their help; an especially HUGE thanks to pantslesswrock for writing Dave's rap for me. You can check out some of his other sick flows at [rhymekindraps.tumblr.com](http://rhymekindraps.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Title is from "Never Gonna Leave Me" by Sia.


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